Ontario Pins Hopes on Practices, Not Testing, to Achieve

Toronto

Americans who want to understand what school improvement might look like if it focused less on test-score results and more on engaging teachers and principals should catch a plane for Ontario.

Like the United States, the Canadian province of Ontario has committed itself to reaching key numeric targets: at least 75 percent of 6th graders able to read, write, and do mathematics at the “provincial standard” by 2008, and at least 85 percent of entering 9th graders graduating from high school by 2010.

But the province’s education strategy focuses less on public ratings and rankings of schools and more on identifying and spreading effective practices...